Army Gigs – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Recently I played the Imatra Jazz Festival in Finland. The Nato Jazz Orchestra (which I am a proud member of) opened for McCoy Tyner and Joe Lovano. McCoy and I even played on the same piano, although it sounded quite different, and infinitely better when he sat down behind it.

It was a blast, we played mostly original arrangements and compositions by guys in the band, and a few well-known standards. The crowd was enthusiastic, the beer was flowing and the vibe was amazing… And Then McCoy and Joe came out!!

All in all a pretty sweet gig.

Since my mission here is to share information about this mysterious job of mine, I thought I would write about some of the various gigs I’ve had over the years.

Allison Weiss on Building an Internet Presence

Allison Weiss is one of the hardest working singer/songwriters I know. We met through Lauren Zettler, who I play with regularly, and I’ve been able to watch Allison do her thing online and in person, from the audience and behind the scenes. I can honestly say that what you see is what you get with Allison. It’s her ability to be herself online has attracted a massive but well targeted internet following across several social networking platforms which she weaves together using tools freely available to anybody. In other words, she uses no tricks and doesn’t have a team of web gurus hiding behind a curtain. She really does it all herself.

I asked Allison if she’d share her secrets with us, and as I suspected, there are no secrets! She is just a creative and savvy musician that is willing to try out new technology to stay ahead of the curve (something I believe is a key to a successful DIY music career). But don’t take my word for it, read Allison’s responses and see for yourself. There’s a lot to learn for any independent musician trying to get their music in front of the right people.

Interview: Hip-Hop Artist Marvalous

I met Marv last week. I was walking up 6th Ave. on my way to a gig and he was standing outside a grocery store near 12th St., trying to get people’s attention as they walked by. I have a soft spot for people trying to talk to strangers – I have enough experience with cold calls and passing out flyers to know that it ain’t an easy thing to do. I had some time to kill before the gig, so I stopped to talk.

Marv, aka “Marvalous”, is a musician selling his CD. I had no idea what his music sounded like, but after talking to Marv for a few minutes I bought his album. I just have to admire a guy that is willing to stand out on a New York City street for hours at a time, facing the early February cold and sustained rejection, in order to give a pitch and a hard sell to one face after another.

And after talking to him awhile, two more things impressed me: 1.) He does this full time. 2.) He makes a living doing this.

I think about my own albums, which I’ve safely stashed in the big, anonymous cloud of iTunes, and I sheepishly push from behind the shield of Facebook and Twitter – giving my hard sell to profile photos and not real faces. Could I stand on the corner and sell my music? I think I could, but it doesn’t matter – I don’t.

As Marv tells it in the interview below, he hit the streets when the music industry machine started to break down. He had used standard music distribution routes before they started to go out of business, and then – not to be stopped – he just walked outside and starting doing it himself.

What I Learned at My Record Label Job

At 16 years old, I got my first job at a video rental store. Since then, I’ve worked at a mall, been a waiter, caterer, bartender, bar back, bouncer, sofa bed salesman, and office supply salesman. I also got my first paying gig as a jazz guitarist at 16, playing at a cafe in the middle of the mall. I think that gig paid $22.50 (the band leader took a 10% finders fee and split the rest four ways). That was the beginning of my double life–the kid that worked hard to make a paycheck and the kid that really just wanted to make music. For the most part, the first kid kept the other one kind of quiet because music is a hobby, not a job, right?

My attitude changed when I quit the office supply business and decided to find some mindless temp work to pay the bills while I tried to get things rolling with my music. I was completely honest with the interviewer at the temp agency:

“I’m a musician, and I just want a job where I can punch out at 5, forget about everything I did that day, and go focus on my music.”

He asked me what I played, what I listened to, all the typical music related questions. Then he said he might have just the position for me–Verve Records needed a long term temp to do some data entry. Perfect. Sign me up!

$80-100k, Health, Pension…As a Jazz Sideman?

The New York Times ran a full-length feature last week on jazz pianist Larry Fuller. The article included interviews with John Pizzarelli, Jeff Hamilton, and John Valenti (owner of…

5 Ways to Find Musician Jobs

These days we’re all looking for more work, right? Maybe the hours at your steady gig were cut in half, or you might be in one of the dozens and…

Musician Profile: Mark Zubek on the Canada Council for the Arts

Mark Zubek is a successful musician, producer and composer originally from Toronto. He has worked with Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Wynton Marsalis and written jingles for companies like Coca-Cola, Dunkin’ Donuts and The Discovery Channel. Mark studied at the Berklee College of Music and lived as a working musician in New York City for 10 years before returning to Canada. In 1998 Mark co-produced the Grammy nominated jazz group, Red Time.

Over the years, Mark has been granted nearly $50,000 (all figures in U.S. currency) from the Canada Council for the Arts to continue his work as a musician. The Canada Council is an agency of the Canadian government that supports the living expenses of Canadian artists through individual grants.

We asked Mark if he would tell us a little more about his experience with the Canada Council.

Interview: Ben Cohn, First Keyboardist and Assistant Conductor for Wicked on Broadway

A musician in a Broadway pit orchestra is one of the best jobs in the world for both commercial and classical musicians. Wages are standardized and protected by the AFM (musicians union) and a full benefits package with health, pension and vacation pay is included in each contract. Naturally, competition for these positions is very stiff. There are hundreds of talented and qualified musicians that live in New York City and vie for positions on each Broadway show.

Ben Cohn currently works as the assistant conductor and first keyboardist on Wicked. Ben worked his way up in the New York theatre scene and now holds one of the best jobs on Broadway. Ben has a unique combination of talent, training, experience and personality that has allowed him to rise to the level that he works at today, and I asked him if he could tell us a little bit more about his career.

Find Jobs On Craigslist Using Search & RSS Feeds

Last week I discussed using Google Alerts to find gigs and monitor your local music scene.  I talked specifically about how to have Google automatically send you leads…

Tales From the Pit: My Career as a Professional Drummer

So. I’m going to assume that you’ve been trying to eke out a living doing what you love to do, while holding on to the last vestiges of your confidence and pride. You have come to a point where anything, ANYTHING, will be helpful to get you out of that next shift at the Burger Hut. Chet, your 19 year old boss, frequently complains that the rhythm of your patty flipping is slowing the “line flow” to an extent that your 16 year old peers are messing up the order of condiments. Chet knows rhythm. In fact, his emo-nerd-prog-zydeco-funk explosion recently broke up because the lead singer’s girlfriend “managed the band’s finances” to the point of extinction and he’s chosen to take it out on lucky you. Maybe you are waiting for Stevie Wonder to hear a clip of you on You Tube and say to himself, “Stevie, I gotta have that guy in my band and pay him ten million dollars a show!” Or perhaps, you are like me and a great deal of my musician friends stuck here in the middle, trying to make things happen and having decent success, but at a loss as to what the next step may be or how to make the most of opportunities at hand.

Fear not, dear reader. There are thousands of us out here. But there is work, Some of it rewarding. Anyone who has the skills, personality, and ambition to take the necessary steps to shed that scratchy, polyester Burger Hut uniform and invest the time and energy can make a go as (dare I say) a professional musician.